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HTC’s New Exodus 5G Hub, A Secure Router Can Run A Full Bitcoin Node and Privacy Apps
The Taiwan-based tech company HTC has just launched a new 5G router that also supports the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain.
Meet the EXODUS 5G Hub, a router that can run its own #Bitcoin full node, just like the EXODUS 1 or 1s, through Zion.
The EXODUS 5G Hub will also support a suite of privacy applications,
Own your keys. Own your privacy. pic.twitter.com/SZn3qZxAdd
— HTC EXODUS (@htcexodus) March 4, 2020
The announcement was made on Wednesday and revealed the EXODUS 5G Hub, a router said to provide a secure 5G connectivity for all devices that can connect to the internet. The EXODUS also supports a full BTC node, which means it allows users to record and verify their transactions in cryptocurrency, all while keeping the blockchain network secure.
Users to Have More Power Over Their Own Data
HTC continued its announcement by saying the hub allows users to own keys, which gives them more power over the data they own. Here’s what firm’s announcement reads:
“You are now verifying the cloud servers, rather than them verifying you. It is a complete power shift from the status quo.”
EXODUS can run a BTC node through Zion, not to mention it provides a means for key recovery in case users happen to lose their devices.
Private Vault to Be Provided Too
The hub further provides a private vault that users can use in order to view their holdings of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance coin (BNB), Litecoin (LTC) and Stellar lumens (XLM). The ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens from Ethereum are supported as well. Here’s hoe HTC’s decentralized chief officer, Phil Chen, described the device:
“EXODUS is about ownership. Owning your keys, owning your data, owning your privacy. EXODUS is the shield against the onslaught of big tech and its assault on the privacy of your home. By using the EXODUS 5G Hub, you have more control and ownership of your data than ever before.”
2 Smartphones Launched Under the EXODUS Brand
The EXODUS brand also includes 2 smartphones created by HTC, both providing crypto features through Zion. HTC mentioned it has plans to provide privacy-focused apps support for all its EXODUS devices, ProtonMail’s encrypted service for mail, Incognito VPN and the Brave browser included. It also said the 5G Hub is supposed to be available in stores in Q2 of 2020, not mentioning anything about the price.


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Panasonic chose what camp they were going to be in early on so they have a huge head start. From the looks of things, Panasonic has a Blu-Ray burner coming real soon, the LF-MB121JD. This drive, yes it is a computer drive and not a set-top player, can read and write on the BD-R and BD-RE media at a whopping 2X (72Mps). Oh, and it also supports BD-ROM too along with normal DVD±R and normal CDs.
The blank media is available in 25 and 50 gig formats. Judging by the cost of TDKs blank discs, it would be a lot cheaper just to buy a huge hard drive, but that's just me The drive itself is going to be available on June 10th for $850.
UPDATE: Akihabara News has a high-def clip of this drive you might want to check out. It is not of it in action still it is in high definition.
[via Akihabara News]

domain: news


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What are you most looking forward to seeing Google unveil?
The smaller HTC-made Pixel 2, as reported by Droid Life, will be priced at $649 for the 64 GB version and $749 for the 128 GB variant. Three colors appear on the blog, including black, gray and the coral color above.
USA will be forced to 'totally destroy' North Korea, Trump tells UN
The administration must decide in mid-October whether it will certify that Iran is still in compliance with the agreement. North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear and missile programs despite sanctions and global condemnation.
The smaller Pixel is the less interesting of the two, as it is expected to retain most of the design elements from the 2016 phone.
The much awaited Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL might just have been confirmed by Google itself.
According to Droid-Life who supplied the renders, the phone will be available in both 64GB and 128GB storage options. Apple's iPhone 8 Plus is only $799, but it's not too late for Google to adjust the price before launch. The most unbelievable thing is that it'll cost just $49.
Shooting reported at Washington State high school
The Spokane Sheriff's Office is expected to provide more information at a news conference sometime on Wednesday afternoon. Cheryl Moser said her son, a freshman at Freeman High School, called her from a classroom after hearing shots fired.
Similar to the Amazon Echo Dot, Google Home Mini will be a smaller version of the company's Home smart speaker. Just like the original Home, the new Home Mini will be available in multiple different colors: Chalk, Charcoal, and Coral. It doesn't look like the jersey-based cloth the company used previous year, but we'll get the final answer sometime in October.
Speaking of the Assistant, 9to5Google also found references to new voices for Google's digital helper (you'll now be able to choose male or female voices), and the "possibility" of a new command to call up the Assistant in the first place.
Brook Backs Canelo: I Think Golovkin's Days Are Numbered!
Jeff Sherman, assistant sportsbook manager at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, opened the fight with GGG -150 and Canelo +130. You can watch the pre-fight press conference featuring Canelo and Golovkin live beginning at 3:00 p.m.


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Canadians Are Ready to Camp, Reports KOA
Pandemic-related restrictions are easing across the country as a large portion of Canadians plan to camp.
Kampgrounds of America (KOA) found Canadians ready to return to camping as pandemic restrictions across the country ease. Two-thirds of Canadians surveyed said they want to camp immediately or very soon. That’s 3.1 million households, with half-million camping for the first time, as reported by RV News.
According to the special Canada Edition of KOA’s Monthly Research Report, more than half of Canadian campers (51%) plan to camp this summer. Two-thirds surveyed said pandemic restrictions should have loosened to allow for camping. The pandemic changed 78% of camping plans by Canadians surveyed.
“Among the many barriers to travel last year, it is encouraging to see that campers are eager to get out and start camping again and even plan to make up for missed camping trips after a very trying year,” KOA President and CEO Toby O’Rourke said. “We know through our annual research that camping does not just allow campers to escape the stress of everyday life, but contributes to emotional wellbeing through the ability to connect with nature, themselves and others.”
Further, more than half of Canadian campers said pandemic restrictions limited camping trips between March and mid-June 2021. Campers consider camping a safer alternative compared with other forms of travel.
KOA operates 33 campgrounds throughout Canada, including properties near national parks and metro areas.


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Two dog food products that were distributed in a dozen states are being recalled because of possible listeria contamination.
Carnivore Meat Co., from Green Bay, Wis., is recalling two of its Vital Essentials foods — Frozen Beef Tripe Patties and Frozen Beef Tripe Nibblets — because they have the potential to be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. The FDA has reported an independent lab detected the bacteria in samples during a recent review. Carnivore says it has received no reports of human illness.
The affected products were distributed in Illinois, Ohio, Washington, California, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. The patties have a UPC of 33211 00809, a lot number of 10930, and a best-by date of 20160210. The nibblets have a UPC of 33211 00904, a lot number of 10719, and a best-by date of 12022015.
In a statement, Vital Essentials CEO Lanny Viegut said: "The FDA notified us of two limited batches of beef tripe products that tested positive for listeria. Although according to the FDA, listeria, even if present, rarely causes any illness in dogs, we nevertheless decided, in an abundance of caution, and because of CVM's (Center of Veterinary Medicine) belief that any items already purchased could be mishandled by pet owners, to withdraw the product from the market."
Consumers with questions are instructed to call Vital Essentials at 920-370-6542 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. CST Monday through Friday.


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Glion Institute of Higher Education has launched Wellness to Business, a range of executive education programmes, which recognises the growing influence of wellness and sustainability within the hospitality industry.
Launched on April 19, 2018, Wellness to Business Executive Education offers online learning, on-campus courses, customised workshops and consultancy services for hotel general managers, spa directors and others in the wellness and hospitality industry, a statement revealed.
Wellness to Business is led by Mariana Palmeiro, a spa and wellness expert and faculty member at Glion with more than a decade of experience in luxury spa and hotel operations.
"Through Wellness to Business, Glion will offer face-to-face, digital and tailored company programmes on current topics in spa and wellness innovation. The health and wellness market offers great potential, and we are pleased to introduce this new educational offering at the executive level. In addition to online courses, we will offer an immersive learning experience in spa and wellness business management this September in Bali, Indonesia, and a three-day course at Glion this October on innovation, technology and wellness,” said Palmeiro.
Glion has also partnered with the Swiss international private clinic Clinique La Prairie to develop business case studies and better standards in the industry through joint activities while enabling students to gain further insights into medical spa practices.
Clinique La Prairie CEO Simone Giberton added: “Clinique La Prairie is proud to be part of the launch of the new Wellness to Business programme offered by Glion Institute of Higher Education. Today, well-being and health are on everyone's concerns. This new study module will allow students to have profound understanding on this specific and exciting industry. Clinique La Prairie will support actively the programme and fully encourage this project."


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Another sign of the changes that are currently happening:
After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.
Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed as proud fixtures in American homes will be discontinued, company executives said.
In an acknowledgment of the realities of the digital age — and of competition from the Web site Wikipedia — Encyclopaedia Britannica will focus primarily on its online encyclopedias and educational curriculum for schools. The last print version is the 32-volume 2010 edition, which weighs 129 pounds and includes new entries on global warming and the Human Genome Project.
“It’s a rite of passage in this new era,” Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., a company based in Chicago, said in an interview. “Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia.”
Link: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses – NYTimes.com via mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com


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Malaysia In 100m Of Batik Pointillism
Indah Atelier Sdn.Bhd has launched “Malaysian in 10m of Batik Pointillism”. The event has a prelude to the artisans 100 challenge, is set to promote the art of batik as a heritage product on global level. Indah Atelier was held on 19 December 2019 at Charlton 6, Level 1, The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur. Indah Atelier with its batik making center based in Rawang has created this dot technique on Satin which has stretched 100m long & 10m long for the launch.
Also being launched at the event was the #myartisan campaign to promote work of local batik artisans in Malaysia. Mojo Projects anchored the milestone event by Indah Atelier right from Public Relation, Media Coverage from 30 over Mainstream Media, overall event organization and flow, technical and logistic requirements for the launch.


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The deal: General Motors Corp. hosted its first "GM Style" event at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. But the event, which features celebrities and concept cars strutting down a catwalk, has been executed five other times under the "GM Ten" name in Hollywood.
The result: The same format and some of the same celebrities year in and year out may no longer be innovative enough for a company that really needs to make itself stand out.
|Double vision? Carmen Electra at the GM Ten show in 2006 (above left) and in 2004. Does this type of repetition still seem innovative?
General Motors Corp. could use a little help looking cool right about now. Sales are in a slump. And rivals continue to rev up competition with cars people actually want to buy.
So a publicity stunt that will stick in people's minds couldn't hurt.
On Jan. 6 -- just before the start of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit -- GM hosted a celebrity-studded fashion show, called "GM Style," that showed off stars alongside the company's Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Saturns, Saabs and Hummers.
Models included actress Rosie Perez, Kristen Bell ("Veronica Mars"), Nick Cannon, "America's Next Top Model" winner CariDee, surfer Laird Hamilton, Minka Kelly ("Friday Night Lights"), pro volleyball player Gabrielle Reese, Ashley Scott ("Jericho"), Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Mario Lopez, Christian Slater and Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls"). Singer John Legend performed.
Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," served as host. GM's Pontiac brand has worked with Mr. Kimmel several times in recent years. The automaker advertised during the show when Mr. Kimmel broadcasted from Detroit during the 2006 Super Bowl; his show has also featured the Pontiac Garage music concerts.
The GM Style concept is cool enough: Rock music plays while a celebrity, wearing a designer suit or gown, struts down a stark white runway followed by a new GM vehicle or concept car. At the end of the catwalk, the car spins on a hidden turntable and then leads the star back down the runway and off the stage.
"The GM Style event provided a great stage for us to showcase our global design prowess," said Ed Welburn, global VP, GM Design. "We are all inspired and influenced by the world of fashion and this event is a great opportunity to bring fashion and vehicle design together."
The only problem is that it's already been done by GM five other times before -- namely in Hollywood over the past five years as the "GM Ten" event, timed around the Academy Awards.
Little has changed over the years -- same white runway, same blaring music. The cars may be different, but some of the stars aren't. Carmen Electra, Vivica A. Fox, Nick Lachey and Maria Menounos have become regulars as models.
Yet GM still spun "GM Style" as a "first-ever" event, conceived by Mike Jackson, GM's VP-marketing and advertising in North America, and Mr. Welburn, with the stars in attendance corralled by Ogilvy PR's BWR, Los Angeles. (See this week's Photo Page for pics from the event.)
The Hollywood version of the show has become one of the must-attend events each year, with past GM models and performers including Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Adrien Brody, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Kim Cattrall, Michael Chiklis, Eve, Heather Graham, Allison Janney, Jewel, George Lopez, Matthew Perry, Jessica Simpson, Justin Timberlake, Steven Tyler and Kanye West. (Not to mention Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan, natch.)
GM declined to disclose just how much it spends to produce the event, and though Mr. Welburn said, "It's a whole lot cheaper than a Super Bowl commercial," the question remains: Is it worth the millions to put the show together anymore?
When it comes to branded entertainment, live events certainly play a role in putting a spotlight on a brand. But events such as Heineken-backed "AmsterJam" or brand-friendly Lollapalooza are open to the masses, guaranteeing a connection with consumers who will hopefully generate buzz among their friends or online. GM's fashion shows are invite-only and are open to just 1,000 guests.
Of course, the value comes in the form of coverage. GM has guaranteed itself segments on "Access Hollywood" by having Ms. Menounos, a regular correspondent on the TV entertainment-news mag, as a model. Packages of the GM event ran Jan. 8 and 9 on the show. Those segments also appear on the show's website.
Rivals "Entertainment Tonight" and "Extra" also ran stories. And photos and short write-ups of the event also found their way in newspapers and entertainment magazines and on blogs.
"Detroit cars and Hollywood stars are two elements that help define American and world culture; bringing the two together is a natural," said GM's Mr. Jackson. "This was a great way for Detroit and GM to kick off the North American International Autoshow."
But GM could do so much more with the event. It did post nearly 60 minutes of video on its website -- the clips showed Mr. Kimmel and other correspondents interviewing celebs and GM executives on the red carpet. But Mr. Kimmel seemed bored; the other correspondents unprofessional. And no video of the actual fashion show can be found anywhere online -- a major missed opportunity considering that is the best part of the event.
After six of these events, GM may also want to consider going bigger next time. It certainly has the marketing dollars to do so. Make a deal with a broadcaster, land some bigger names and show the event on TV, the way Victoria's Secret does with its own fashion show. Sure, that show lured men to watch scantily clad women, but guys like cars too.
At the very least, GM should present the full show online. Post it on the GM website, or put it on a special page on Yahoo or MySpace. Make it a free download on iTunes. At least post it on YouTube. Don't just run a live feed of the show and then take it down so that no one can watch it.
GM execs still think spending millions to host the event is worth it.
So do some analysts. Jim Sanfilippo, exec VP of auto consultant AMCI, attended the event and called it a good idea -- a party for all the reporters visiting from around the world in town for the Detroit auto show. And GM is likely to get news coverage and some borrowed equity from the stars. The attitude seems to be: If Hollywood says it's cool, then it's cool.
Yes, but the event also needs to remain cool enough for people to care.


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Ether prices are a bit correlated to bitcoin prices as many people trade.Yes: everyone wants to know that they are getting richer because they are holding BTC.Wallet Adds Coinbase and Glidera Integration to Allow Users Buying Bitcoin In-App July 26th, 2017.Get started with Bitcoin: find a wallet, buy bitcoin, shop with bitcoin, read bitcoin news,.
Get News About BTC- Bitcoin Price Prediction 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020,2021,2022,2023,2024,2025 future value history chart,BTC Price Details BTC Feed.
In 2008 the price of gold spiked as investors dumped stocks and hard.Bitcoin prices remained largely unscathed today, in spite of the hard fork that created rival currency Bitcoin Cash.
FAQ - BitcoinBitcoin is down about 14% in 2017. Bitcoin is getting demolished,.It will never again grow as fast as it did in 2013, but I think there is still quite a bit of progress to go.The popularity of trading Bitcoin has now reached the point where none other than the New York Times sees fit to declare cryptocurrencies, or more speci.
This is based on the assumption that all exchanges and measurements will move to mBTC as the defacto denomination rather then BTC at the moment.Bitcoin Price Soars, Fueled by Speculation and Global Currency.Bitcoin is a virtual currency that was created in 2009 by an.While this may be a sad commentary on the state of civil liberty in China, it is actually the best thing to happen to the Bitcoin price prediction in a long time.
Cryptocurrency Bitcoin Price Breaks $4,100 | PYMNTS.comBitcoin Hard Fork 2017 Bitcoin, Ethereum Prices, Litecoin As we approach the dreaded Bitcoin fork on August 1, investors are getting nervous. “What if the Bitcoin...
It is in a winning position by virtue of being the most recognizable, the most trusted, and the most stable.The question everyone wants to know the answer to: What will Bitcoins price be in a year.
Bitcoin price will make up $500,000, says John McAfeeSlowly speculation, on the scale it is being done today, will dwindle, and the currency will stabilize considerably.Companies are investing heavily into blockchain technology, which is what underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.It uses the double-ledger system and operates independent of any central bank.Currently, I would guess, somewhere between 5-10% is used for the purchasing of goods.
For instance, the online retailer Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) became the first company to trade its shares via Bitcoin.With the rise of other crypto currencies, predictions like these are harder to make.Half of the year 2017 has already passed and during this period the Bitcoin price made the most dramatic rises and falls in its history.Bitcoin is immune from such manipulations, because no one can change the original supply—there are a fixed number of units being unlocked at a steady pace.
Bitcoin Price Predictions 2017 and Beyond – Anyone got it
Interesting will be to follow China, Russia and India as well as Africa, as these territories have a significant potential to be a game changer.All I would say in response is this: being first is what matters.
After years of volatility, the Bitcoin price forecast is finally on an upward trek through 2017 and beyond.


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Designers will be the cynosure of all eyes, celebrities occupying the front rows, and the who's who of fashion industry sharing their insights. The 10th edition of the Indian Beach Fashion Week is that dose of entertainment Goa awaits eagerly, more so to see the brimming innovation and elegance it brings.
This season, the State has experienced a multitude of events, leaving event managers with no time to rest. At the Taj Holiday Village Resort and Spa in Candolim, on Sunday, event planners and managers were busy organising everything to ensure the event, like every time, runs flawlessly, for two days - March 18 and 19.
This year, IBFW, which is among the top fashion events, and one of the most anticipated in the country, joins hands with global and iconic watch brand, Timex, the title sponsor of the event that promises some of the finest beach couture and fashion trends scaling over two days.
With the onset of summer, witness the newest styles in swimwear, resort attire and accessories come alive as models walk the ramp, personifying the style and grace of each collection, set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Arabian Sea.
The fashion week is expected to be an extravaganza celebrating trends in fashion with designers like Pria Kataria, Samant Chauhan, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna presenting their eye-catching new collections.
“We're excited to team up with India Beach Fashion Week as the title sponsor,” MD Timex India, Deepak Chhabra shared. "Timex has had a long relationship with India Beach Fashion Week, and with each passing year, the partnership only grows stronger, and younger, based on the foundation of style, self-expression, and the spirit of innovation."
"As a brand that thrives on fashion and innovation, we are pleased to keep this momentum on and are committed to supporting the fashion industry, and providing a platform for talented designers to showcase their work," he added.
Timex Watches, as the title sponsor this year, is at the heart of all the stylish fashion shows with beachside vibes and infectious energy. The Timex collaboration will showcase the diverse range of fashion watches offered by the brand.
The key collections set to steal the spotlight are Timex Malibu, watches inspired by beaches, and Fria the elegant statement watches, amongst others.
IBFW Showcase is amongst the top two fashion platforms in the country targeting the youth segment.
Founder of IBFW, Pallav Ojha, expressed his excitement about the partnership with Timex, stating, "As we step into season 10 of India Beach Fashion Week Showcase, we're thrilled to have a strong partner in Timex India, a brand synonymous with timeless style and innovation."
"We started this journey together in the last season, and we aim to redefine beach fashion, blending sophistication with the spirit of adventure going forward. The 10th year showcase has an eclectic mix of style, panache and designers," he shared.
Attendees will get a thrilling opportunity to witness the newest styles in beachwear and accessories at runway presentations, designer displays, and exclusive pop-up stores, along with the latest collection of Timex watches.


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"Steve [Jobs] would wig before keynotes. But it’s like the diva right before the opera. And Steve was brilliant at doing those presentations. And he’d spend months preparing. I mean, he was very passionate about this. He did a phenomenal job."
Doogie Horner, author of 100 Ghosts, a collection of reimaginings of the classic white-sheet ghost, drew some pitchmen from beyond the grave for Co.Create. If you haven’t decided on a Halloween costume yet, maybe you’ll be inspired. Check them out.
"[The challenge] is getting communities and getting companies to truly keep pace with every single individual because this"—she waved her iPhone—"is enabling them," she said. "If you want to keep the next generation and if you want them to be united, you have to see this is how they live. You have to blow up all your existing policies—everything!—and rebuild them around this."
This summer, we asked Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts about her company’s greatest challenge. That her first thought was to compare Burberry’s hurdles with that of Apple’s is telling.
Two weeks ago, at Fast Company's Innovation by Design conference, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts spent time on stage praising her company’s recent collaboration with Apple for a fashion show. What Ahrendts neglected to mention, however, was that her partnership with Apple would soon extend beyond the runway.
Today, Apple announced that Ahrendts would be joining the company as senior vice president of retail and online stores, a newly created position, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. In her role, Ahrendts will “have oversight of the strategic direction, expansion and operation” of the Apple “consumer experience on and offline,” according to a statement Apple released late Monday evening. Most significantly, she brings a reverence for design and customer experience that’s consistent with Apple’s DNA—unlike her predecessor John Browett—which will be crucial in rejuvenating Cupertino’s retail experience.
Less than a year after it refreshed its iMac line of desktops with a new, thin design, Apple has updated it yet again, this time, with more power under the hood. Like the Macbook Airs that launched in June, the iMacs now include fourth generation Intel Haswell processors, which should mean a significant improvement in graphics performance. The flipside? There’s still no sign of that retina display, something customers have long been clamoring for.
“Even if the attack proves to be real, this isn’t a casual, fast trick. The attacker would have to be lucky enough to get a perfect print of the correct finger to unlock the iPhone, which means they’d have to find that specific print, or be forced to try several fake prints. Anyone this intent on hacking your iPhone would need prolonged access to it.”
Apple had to do a lot of work just to make the sensor accessible in mobile devices. “You’re basically exposing a piece of silicon that’s going to be in your pocket with hard keys and coins. We were able to evolve the technology to address aesthetics and durability.”
As far back as the early 2000s, fingerprint sensors were embedded in a slew of devices, from laptops produced by HP and Toshiba to phones made by Nokia and Motorola. But while Apple was able to make fingerprint sensors feel like a fresh idea, its competitors were only capable of making the technology feel superfluous, stale, and unready for market.
Apple has scheduled a big press event tomorrow, at which it promises it will “brighten everyone’s day.” This, we presume, is a veiled reference to the colorful plastic iPhone ”lite,” possibly called the iPhone 5C, that has been revealed in a number of leaks through the summer. But what else may Apple have planned for us tomorrow? (We’ll be live-blogging the entire event here).


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The Lancaster Paint Las Vegas Buying Show opened its doors, marking a collaboration with the National Hardware Show to allow buyers to browse and buy the paint and sundries category in one place.
The two-day Lancaster event at the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, next door to the Las Vegas Convention Center, opened Wednesday with some 100 exhibits.
"Being in one location will help drive more paint customers to both shows," said Mike Dube, category manager at Lancaster. "Our vendors have been very supportive of us being here, and we've also been able to bring some big-brand paint vendors to the table that might not normally come to the National Hardware Show. That's good news for attendees of both shows, as there will be a lot more vendors for everyone to see."
One of Lancaster's newest retail customers said he saw the value in the co-location of the shows. "We really appreciate the Lancaster Buying Show as it allows us to see a wide range of products all under one roof," said retailer Juan Masip Diaz of Dijtham Curacao in Curacao, Antilles. "We've already been to the National Hardware Show and were impressed with how we were able to see so much more than hardware products there, such as the home and garden products."
John Plocic, director of sales at Techtronic Industries North America, was one of the new exhibitors to Lancaster's show. "We're excited to be here and we've had a lot of traffic already,” he said. “A lot of the retailers have already been looking at paint vendors in the National Hardware Show, and now they're excited to come here and see even more options here.”


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Canada Cannabis Spot Index (CCSI)
Published December 25, 2020
*The provincial excise taxes vary. Cannabis Benchmarks estimates the population weighted average excise tax for Canada.
**CCSI is inclusive of the estimated Federal & Provincial cannabis excise taxes..
The CCSI was assessed at C$6.05 per gram this week, down 2.4% from last week’s C$6.20 per gram. This week’s price equates to US$2,140 per pound at the current exchange rate.
Include your weekly wholesale transactions in our price assessment by joining our Price Contributor Network
If you have not already done so, we invite you to join our Price Contributor Network, where market participants anonymously submit wholesale transactions to be included in our weekly price assessments. It takes two minutes to join and two minutes to submit each week, and comes with loads of extra data and market intelligence.
This week the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), the body that regulates the province’s cannabis market, released their Q2 Cannabis Insights reportfor the period from July through September 2020. The report contains a wide variety of useful data to show how Ontario’s market is developing. In today’s report, we focus specifically on price.
The legal Canadian cannabis market has faced strong competition from illicit supply chains, due to high product prices and few stores. The OCS’s latest report shows those market dynamics are changing.
The report shows that not only did the brick and mortar retail footprint grow to 178 stores from 100, but the price of dried flower on the OCS online store dropped by 9%, falling further below the price of cannabis sold through illegal mail-order marijuana (MoM) sites after doing so in Q1 for the first time. The average price of legal dried flower, including sales taxes, was C$6.41/gram. The reduction was largely a result of discount lines of cannabis released by the big Licensed Producers. In comparison, the average dried flower price on illegal MoM sites rose by C$0.19 to C$7.98/gram. While the quality of the dried flower was not taken into consideration for this price comparison, legal product has some overall advantages in this regard due to required quality assurance and safety testing, prohibitions on pesticide use, and standards for accuracy in labeling, among other regulations.
Clearly, lower prices have helped legal sellers build market share. The report indicates 36.2% of cannabis sales are now being made through legal channels. We believe that, along with lower prices, COVID lockdowns have pushed consumers to more regulated and inspected products.
Overall, this report once again emphasizes that positive trends for the legal cannabis industry are emerging and being cemented as the regulated market develops.
For more data and analytics like this, subscribe to the Cannabis Market Insights report developed in collaboration Nasdaq. This in-depth monthly report provides exclusive data and analysis on the legal cannabis industry, focusing largely on the Canadian cannabis market, as well as the cannabis equities market in the U.S.


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A common European Union policy which requires the food industry to use iodised salt is needed to tackle the issue of deficiencies, say authors of a study that found 44% of Europeans are deficient in the nutrient.
A new ice cream product enriched with iodine is to be launched in
the New Year by Russian dairy group MiasoMolTorg JSC, the first
product of its kind on the Russian market and the latest to play on
the health credentials of dairy...


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LG has announced its first smart watch, called G Watch, some time back but till now has not revelaed its properties or even pictures. But now Pocket-Lint posted few images of the device on its website and claimed that it will be launched this July.
As per the images, the LG G Watch comes in a rectangular form factor and bears no physical buttons. It appears like a really tiny smartphone with straps attached to it. LG plans to introduce the G Watch by July in the UK.
Note that Google has modified the Android platform to derive a new Android Wear platform which is meant for the wearable gadgets with displays. The Android Wear platform powers the recently announced Moto 360 SmartWatch and the upcoming LG G Watch.
The price of the LG G Smartch is estimated to be around 180 GBP which equates to roughly Rs 18,000. So far LG has not clarified the markets which the LG G Watch will be released.
Image Credit: pocket-lint


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just now, breaking news on CNN
September 30th, 2009
just shopping at my local chinese market. Had to take the shot quck because security dudes forbid photos.
Taken yesterday in London, England.
University of Alberta. Oil, gas, and penises will power the future....
We're going to need more green crayons.
Worst typo ever, or is this somehow related to the crazy astronaut program. Sounds painful, either way....


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Pride walks before the fall
While this is mostly speculation, I can't help feeling that Sony is once again treading the path that led the company to enormous trouble during PlayStation 3's first years on the market. At the time, Sony was extremely confident after the success of the PS2 a console that virtually trampled all competition and dominated the market. The company proudly sat on the leader's throne, and when it announced the PlayStation 3, it completely ignored the actions of the competition.
SIXTH GENERATION CONSOLES SALES:
- PlayStation 2 155 million consoles sold
- Xbox 24 million consoles sold
- GameCube 22 million consoles sold
- Dreamcast 9.13 million consoles sold
And the competition used that well. Microsoft learned the lessons from the failure of the first Xbox and launched its successor a year before Sony's debut, giving itself a huge advantage. The Xbox 360 was also much cheaper than the PlayStation. It offered interesting, innovative solutions, such as achievements, and highly developed network services. In its early days, Microsoft not only had a handful of great exclusive games up its sleeve, but also persuaded many developers over the years closely associated with Sony to release their works on other devices as well. As a result, series such as Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto and Tekken, hitherto inseparable from the PlayStation, appeared on the Xbox 360. Years later, we learned that many developer were willing to stick with Sony, but the Japanese corporation showed no interest in competing with Microsoft's bid in the belief that it would win without any effort. By the time Sony woke up and started chasing her competitor, it was already in big trouble.
I see some parallels between the situation of the past and current events. The success of the PlayStation 4 is undeniable, and judging by Sony's actions so far, I have the impression that the company once again rests on its laurels too much for its own good. This time it doesn't look as bad as it did a dozen years ago, but there is no hiding the fact that the Japanese have fallen into some kind of stagnation and are clinging to a strategy that worked last time, leaving no room for improvisation.
The PlayStation 5 promises to simply be a stronger PS4 with a similar ecosystem, a similar type of exclusive games and a classic distribution model. The only major promised revolution is related to the SSD a technology that has available been on PCs for years. Meanwhile Microsoft, coming in second, is making some bold moves. The company is betting heavily on the aforementioned Game Pass subscription, which could revolutionize the market. It's thinking about selling consoles like smartphones and is likely to launch more than one model to begin with (and more will follow in the future). It focuses on building an entire ecosystem of which Xbox is just one of many elements. It expands its arsenal of in-house studios, realizing that at this point it has fallen far behind Sony.
With its dominant position, Sony can afford a moment of stagnation. But the old saying goes that to stand still is to move backwards and in the rapidly evolving digital entertainment industry, this maxim is even more valid than anywhere else. If the Japanese stick to what they know for too long and ignore changing trends, they may lose the battle with Microsoft. And unlike the Americans, for whom games are just one of the company's many divisions, Sony, which has relied heavily on the strength of the PlayStation brand for several years, cannot afford another PS3-sized failure.
Last update: 2020-09-12
Michael Grygorcewicz | Gamepressure.com


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Today, Forbes and others reported on a massive new funding round for a Lowe's-backed startup Porch.com to the tune of $65 million. While Porch.com founder says he still controls the company, there is no doubt Lowe's sees Porch.com as an important weapon in its expansion into the local installer services economy.
But the most interesting part about the Porch.com deal for me was thinking about how this nationwide network of local installers could help another Lowe's strategic initiative - Lowe's Iris - get traction. Iris is the company's smart home platform, which is the centerpiece of Lowe's effort to put itself in control of a growing market that we at NextMarket forecast to be worth $7.8 billion in the US alone by 2019.
Smart home savvy readers are probably asking, "isn't Lowe's Iris a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) product?" It's intended to be, but let's be honest: DIY is the smart home industry's big lie, since getting mass-market adoption will likely require a light-service channel to help Grandpa, Mom or even me install that new intelligent wall switch or smart water valve without electrocuting myself or flooding the house.
In many ways, this business already exists.
Part of what makes me suspect retailers are thinking this way is I am already seeing existing smart home companies examining installer services themselves. Wink, the smart home company owned by
In reality, I think the retailers best opportunity for the smart home is not just as the physical store front, but also as a service bureau for installers. No one's really built out the great mass-market installer network for the smart home (though in some ways, cable companies are probably the closest today with managed smart home offerings), which I think is a necessary and potentially profitable business.
Because for all the HomeKits, standards and claims of easy-installations in the growing smart home market, the reality is many consumers will want and need help installing and managing all these gadgets.


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Workers Report Cameras In Bathroom At Small Business
An investigation is under way in Rio Rancho after employees at a small, home-based business claim they found a recording device in the bathroom.
Click Like For New Mexico News Updates:
Inside the popular River's Edge neighborhood, at least two employees at a home-based business called police in late November, claiming that their boss was up to something shocking.
"(They claimed the business) had set up recording devices, specifically while they were using the restroom," Rio Rancho police Sgt. Nicholas Onken said.
No formal charges have been filed against the business owner, but investigators did obtain a search warrant.
"Not only did we find enough initial evidence, but when presented before a judge, it was immediately signed upon," Onken said.
Action 7 News has learned there appears to be far more than just a minute or two of footage.
"There is a sizable amount of evidence that is requiring quite a few man hours," Onken said. "We want to make sure that there were no juveniles that may have been victimized by this situation."
Police said misdemeanor or felony charges could be filed as the investigation moves forward.


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(Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine) – Volvo announced today a new marketing strategy to begin selling its vehicles online instead of just in physical dealerships.
“The car industry is one of the most conservative, least evolutionary marketing clusters in global business,”said Volvo Senior VP Marketing, Sales and Customer Service, Alain Visser. “For decades, car marketing has been following a certain pattern which is followed by the entire car industry. Now, Volvo Cars chooses to defy that logic and implement a strategy that is geared towards its own needs.”
The Swedish car company notes that its new strategy, the ‘Volvo Way to Market,’ will focus on four areas, marketing tools, digital leaderships, dealerships, and service, says a press release.
A motor show in Europe, Asia, and the U.S, will continue, as well as its annual Volvo event where it shows of its products, though only one motor show will be held in each area a year.
“With the Volvo Way to Market, we don’t want to throw all existing marketing concepts overboard,” said Mr Visser. “Many of them exist for a good reason. We also don’t want to have the arrogance to say that we are better than all the rest. But we do have the self-confidence to say that we are different. So our way to market needs to be different as well.”
Volvo will follow in the footsteps of BMW and Tesla with its new online sales.


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The GeForce GTX 970 has become a very popular graphics card since its release and offers quite a lot of performance for its $329.99 price tag. Well it looks like it may just have a design flaw, which has been discovered by power-users. GPU memory benchmarks have revealed that the card is not able to address the last 700 MB of its 4 GB of memory.
Users are calling this the “GTX 970 Memory Bug” and it is being discussed on various tech forums. The memory bug is being attributed to user-reports of a micro-stutter noticed on GTX 970 setups, in VRAM intensive gaming scenarios. NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 980 is not showing any signs of this bug as the card is able to address the full 4 GB of VRAM. There have been a flood of posts about this one the OCN forums and a forum member has responded saying, “we are still looking into this and will have an update as soon as possible.” So it has not been solved yet or addressed by NVIDIA. We will keep you updated as this is a developing story.


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Segway sold; CEO Norrod out
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- Rodney H. Brown
Segway Inc., the Bedford, N.H.-based maker of battery-powered, balancing scooters, has confirmed via its website that the company has been sold to a U.K. firm and CEO James Norrod is no longer with the company.
The statement on Segway’s website notes that a company backed by Jimi Heselden, a U.K. businessman and the chairman of Hesco Bastion, acquired Segway for an undisclosed amount on Dec. 24, 2009. Heselden is also an investor in the independent distributorship Segway U.K.
The news first leaked via a posting on a Segway users forum. According to a site administrator who was a stockholder in Segway prior to the acquisition, a letter was sent to stockholders stating that a company known as JWH Holdings Inc. acquired the company. The forum posting goes on to say that Norrod is no longer the CEO, which was confirmed this morning by Segway. That forum administrator has since confirmed via e-mail that what he posted is accurate.
Segway landed $5 million of Series D venture funding in April 2008, its most recently reported round. That brought the total raised in the company to $176 million over four rounds of funding. Previous investors include Credit Suisse Private Equity, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures and Masdar. E-mail messages to Kleiner Perkins’ member of Segway’s board, John Denniston, were not returned early Thursday.
Segway was founded by N.H.-based inventor Dean Kamen, who developed the device and its ‘SmartMotion’ balancing and control technology. Kamen is the head of DEKA Research in New Hampshire and the founder of the science education nonprofit FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology).
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Apple Launches New iPod Nano and Shuffle Colors
Following the launch of the new iPod touch today, Apple has also launched a new iPod nano and shuffle. Unlike the iPod touch, this update only adds new colors. There are no new software or processors. We only see new colors. Those colors are silver, gold, space gray, pink, blue, and red. That is for both the nano and shuffle.


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Flats of Broken Ladder cider are being snapped up faster than can be produced, creating the most delicious dilemma local agriculturalists have seen in some time.
“We are constantly hearing, ‘I’m out,'” said Shannon Forgues, BC Tree Fruit’s Cidery Co. promotions Manager. “Right when the first palates (of cider) come off the line, I’m there shipping them out to wherever they need to be. And when we think we have enough we run into the same dilemma again.”
With each palate of cider being gulped up, the need for more local fruit arises and that’s where local co-op members see rewards.
“For the first time in a long time we’re able to use the apples that didn’t necessarily have a lot of value before,” said Forgues “Now we have a home for them, and it’s a home that’s generating revenue.”
So much so that Forgues has been told that there are farmers once again planting fruit trees—something that would have been unheard of just six years ago.
As recently as 2010 the cost of producing apples was higher than the revenue farmers generated. Repeated years of losses prompted longtime farmers to start pulling out their crops and putting their farms up for sale.
Joe Sardinha, then president of the B.C. Fruit Growers’ Association, said in an interview at the time that the business had simply become unsustainable.
“It’s to do with the apple market specifically — it’s in a meltdown mode,” said Sardinha, in 2010, pointing out that the issue started in 2008.
Agritourism and value added fruit products were often discussed as the potential saviour of the industry. Some local farmers branched out and did their own value-added projects, but the the co-op didn’t get to it until 2015, when they launched BC Tree Fruits Cidery Company’s broken Broken Ladder.
The cider’s name is an homage to the farms that form the basis of the business—all farms have a broken down apple picking ladder stashed away somewhere —but it’s not all agriculture at the cider’s headquarters.
The cider is a strong stand alone product that won acclaim among foodies as well as international awards in its first year. That gave the powers that be cause to branch out this summer.
The company created two new ciders for release this spring: Pears and Apples & Hops.
“It was another labor-intensive recipe process,” says Michael Daley, Cidery Manager. “The results are two new varieties of cider, Pears and the unique taste of Apples & Hops. These, in addition to Apples will be available in BC Liquor stores and private retail stores mid-April.”
Pears and Apples & Hops remain true to the core like the original apples blend, with no added sugars or additives. All fruit is locally grown in British Columbia’s Okanagan orchards by BC Tree Fruits Cooperative growers.
With the award-winning success of the original Broken Ladder Apples blend, and the abundance of apples grown every year, BC Tree Fruits Cider Co wanted to create something a bit drier with complex tastes and aromas. Apples & Hops brings the beer and cider worlds together to appeal to true cider fans and offer something new to the beer drinker. The hops adds a dryness to the overall juiciness of the apple, bringing out the citrus notes of grapefruit and lemon on the palate and the nose.
“Craft cider continues to be one of the fastest growing categories in the beverage sector,” said Daley. “BC Tree Fruits’ place in this market is a perfect fit. We are an authentic homegrown producer. Apples and pears are handpicked and crushed right in our own mill, resulting in premium ciders.”


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The lender, which offers credit repair, self-build and high loan-to-value products, will be represented alongside Shawbrook Bank and GE Money.
The seminar, which is free, takes place on 24 April 2013.
AToM managing director Dale Jannels said: “The seminars are a great opportunity for brokers to hear and speak directly to lenders that are not easily accessible or who only offer products through certain channels. These free seminars are proving very popular so book quickly to secure your place.”
Brokers interested can register here.


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The 'UK’s biggest bingo game party extravaganza' is coming to Bristol this September.
Bada Bingo will be serving the weird and wacky with the Just Gaga Experience for one night only in Buzz Bingo Fishponds, which will see an old-school bingo hall transform into the ultimate rave. On September 2, the event is set to offer a varied mix of games, dance-offs, cheeky prizes, and crowd-favourite hits all night long.
Bristol attendees will be in for a ride with Mother Monster’s biggest anthems as part of Bada Bingo’s Lady Gaga Tribute, as well as not-so typical prizes during the event such as an inflatable cabbage costume and, bizarrely, a 'Boris Johnson vibrator'.
Far from a traditional evening of bingo, the event advert states: "This bingo rave is set in an old-school bingo hall but there’s twist. The lights are down, the music is loud. Confetti and flashing lights...There will be rave rounds, mass singalongs, confetti showers and dance offs."
Under 18s will not be permitted to purchase tickets, and the dress code bans people from wearing football shirts or tracksuit bottoms. Bada Bingo have also warned that strobe lighting and other intensive lighting will be used at this event, therefore it will not be deemed safe for those with epilepsy and other conditions with sensitivity to light.
A spokesperson for the brand said: “At Bada Bingo we are devoted to creating an experience that will have you laughing for days. We are all about creating a safe space for people to come and let their hair down, and live and laugh in the moment.
“We want to offer an alternative night out that is far from your Instagrammable destinations. We want people to leave with confetti in their hair and a story worth telling, rather than a picture for their Instagram.”
Tickets start at £12 and doors open at 8.45pm, with the night lasting until 1am.


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The Next Wave of Business: IBM Salesforce Report 2022-2023
5 min read | OCTOBER 27, 2022
Salesforce has long since proved themselves to be a driving force behind customer success strategies and recent studies reveal that a majority of customers even plan to increase their Salesforce investments within the next year. With 2023 looming on the horizon, it can be beneficial to take a look back at 2022 in order to better prepare for the future; and that’s just what the IBM State of Salesforce report does. This year, The State of Salesforce report recognizes the impact that people and technology have on businesses’ resilience but also the ways in which companies can leverage Salesforce to continue growing and evolving their businesses. In 2023, we can expect to see a big wave of companies that use Salesforce technology to advance human-centered experiences, along with ways to drive value. In this article we’ll break down the top four trends that offer insight into how companies are unlocking the next wave of value with Salesforce in 2023.
“As the status quo has shifted decisively toward cloud technology, the question isn’t whether to invest — it’s how to strategically optimize those investments to accelerate business value.” – Al Jenkins, Managing Partner, Salesforce, IBM Consulting
Trend 1: Harmonize Operations with Cross-Cloud
Harmonizing operations with cross-cloud will help businesses reduce costs, boost
productivity, streamline processes and retain employees in three key ways:
1. Simplify Workflows: Many companies already use AI to improve and automate business processes within the Salesforce platform, but the biggest competitive advantage will occur for companies that use intelligent workflows to create digital headquarters that shrink geographical divides, accelerate productivity and eliminate silos.
2. Accelerate Revenue Streams: Salesforce is seeing an increase in companies utilizing global partner networks as a revenue stream, which makes it that much more important for businesses to quickly cultivate profound relationships with suppliers, resellers and service providers. Experts recommend modernizing the partner-business relationship through cross-cloud integration to deliver consistent experiences and generate new value.
3. Customer 360
Customer 360 provides powerful insight into your customers’ needs and pain points, but in order to achieve a true 360-degree experience, companies must leverage technology integrations that enable data sharing, automation and transparency. For example, Mulesoft from Salesforce can reduce friction, significantly decrease manual work and provide valuable insight across company data sources.
Trend 2: Thrive in a Trust Economy
Thriving in a trust economy involves establishing a trustworthy reputation. This involves ensuring that your company is using digital technology in ways that reinforce ethics, transparency, security, privacy and safety. Companies can achieve this by managing their data with secure and stable data management systems like Tableau. In the very near future, you’re likely to hear more companies talking about “AI integrity” and “trust as the new currency,” as companies begin to prioritize investing in bolstering their trustworthy reputation.
Trend 3: Innovate Smarter, Not Harder
Business slows for no one and these days it seems to be happening at breakneck speeds. When considering digital transformation at scale, there are seemingly infinite possibilities which can overcomplicate things quickly. Salesforce’s intelligent ecosystem innovations and updates exceed market requirements while minimizing technical debt.
Trend 4: Make Sustainability a Transformation Catalyst
What does Salesforce business transformation and innovation have to do with sustainability? Well, everything. Sustainability best practices are growing with a new sense of urgency and there is an increasing demand, particularly from younger generations, for companies to assume responsibility. There are two key ways in which organizations can embrace eco-friendly strategies and technology:
1. Data-driven Environmentalism: In order to practice more sustainable solutions, organizations need to know where they stand. By utilizing platforms like Salesforce Net Zero Cloud companies can track and analyze their environmental impact across front and back offices to inform better decision-making processes that move sustainability initiatives forward.
2. Transformational Sustainability: It’s one thing to proclaim sustainability and another to actively practice it. Transformational sustainability means making sustainability a core value within your company and acting in a way that reflects that. Furthermore, experts have found that companies can benefit from a sustainable digital transformation. This includes seeing higher returns for productivity, efficiency and reduced environmental impact at scale.
There is no denying that the world we live in has no plans to slow down digitization, and the businesses that will thrive will be those that are focused on cultivating meaningful customer relationships powered by technology, not run by it. To read the full report on how to maximize your business’s service, productivity and innovation with Salesforce in 2023, click here.
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Yesterday, immediately in the aftermath of the PBOC's dramatic devaluation announcement, we remarked the following:
Been a while since tens of millions of Chinese rushed into gold and bitcoin— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 11, 2015
To be sure, while it will take the Chinese mainland a few more hours to realize just what happened, and that once you unleash the devaluation genie in a global currency war you can't simply put it back in, which means over one billion Chinese will soon be scrambling to preserve their purchasing power (but not in the stock market which particular bubble burst just last month and taught millions a very harsh lesson in get rich quick schemes), some fast thinkers realized that not only will capital outflows explode in the coming weeks and months, but that holding one's savings in Yuan will be, well, foolish.
As a result, after initially tumbling for some inexplicable reason after the PBOC announcement, gold is now soaring back to levels from mid-July and going higher.
Here we eagerly await as the BIS' Benoit Gilson sells a few billion in paper gold just to reset the price of gold lower as a surge in gold, and a loss of faith in paper money, at this juncture in just broken out global currency wars, is the last thing the central banks' central bank can afford.
But wait, there's more: because any day now the PBOC will update its revised foreign reserve and gold holdings. And so the next big leg up in gold will take place when it is revealed that the PBOC had only exposed a portion of its "new" total gold inventory, and that with every passing month it will simply reveal more and more as central-planning conditions demand it.


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Fast food lovers in shortage-plagued Venezuela are enjoying greasy French fries at McDonald’s franchises here once again after the side dish went missing last winter.
McDonald’s rolled out the fries’ comeback on Monday with an ad campaign including a countdown on social media and large banners at franchises inviting customers to swap their fried yuca, a root crop also known as cassava, for the real thing.
Venezuela’s shortages are driven in part by the country’s tight currency controls, which make it hard to get dollars for imports. Potato imports fell 85 percent in 2014, before McDonald’s took fries off the menu.
Sonia Ruseler, an Argentina-based spokeswoman for Arcos Dorados, which runs McDonald’s restaurants in Latin America, says the company was able to bring the fries back by sourcing potatoes locally.
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RIM is facing an uphill battle as the company attempts to dig itself out of its current situation. With BB10 postponed until the first quarter of 2013 and the company bleeding money, CEO Thorsten Heins is looking towards desperate measures.
RIM is investigating licensing BB10 to third-party hardware makers, Heins told The Telegraph in an interview. “You could think about us building a reference system, and then basically licensing that reference design, have others build the hardware around it – either it’s a BlackBerry or it’s something else being built on the BlackBerry platform," Heins said.
The CEO wouldn't get into details about the potential business plan, but he said that the company is working with its financial planners to see if it is financially viable. But is this a plan that RIM can actually implement?
"RIM's talked about licensing, there's no secret they're doing that. The real question is who are they going to license to?" analyst Ken Dulaney of Gartner told Wired. If dominant phone manufacturers like Samsung and HTC are not interested, there are other options. Dulaney said: "It's going to be secondary players potentially or maybe a large player that's looking for some niche market."
While licensing with large hardware makers, and in markets like the United States, might not pan out for the Waterloo-based company, the company's international market could benefit. Dulaney told Wired, "Markets, like international, where [RIM has] been strong, they don't necessarily want to make devices and they may want lower-cost devices." That's something that licensing BB10 could help achieve.
But, without more concrete information about its future plans, it's difficult to parse how RIM could push its licensing deals.
Regardless of the company's current financial difficulties or its pending difficulties with hardware partners, Heins is still dedicated to the current BlackBerry customers: "Either we do it ourselves or we do it with a partner. But we will not abandon the subscriber base.”


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The ASUS Zenfone 5z Android flagship is expected to debut in the U.S. soon and is already listed on the company's official website. The listing also mentions a starting price for the device, which isn't exactly in the neighborhood of its pricing seen in other markets where the high-end phone already debuted. The webpage dedicated to the handset has gone live prior to an official announcement along with a price tag of $1,999, nearly four times larger than the handset's European pricing. The Taiwanese company introduced its latest flagship in Europe a couple of weeks back with a starting price of €500 (~$580) for its base variant with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, making it the lowest-priced smartphone in the region to sport a Snapdragon 845 chipset.
Mentioning a significantly higher price on its official website could be one of ASUS's marketing tricks, or it could simply be a plain typo or an oversight on the company's part. Either way, the absurdly high price tag of $1,999 will most certainly not end up as the phone's retail price, with the company possibly already working to fix the listing. Having said that, the Zenfone 5z was introduced at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February as the company's most premium Android smartphone offering for 2018. Since then, it has been released in Europe and Japan, with its debut in India being scheduled for next week.
The ASUS Zenfone 5z is one of the first phones from the company to sport a notched display in the form of an IPS panel measuring 6.2 inches diagonally with an FHD+ resolution. Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 SoC, the device offers up to 8GB of RAM, 256GB of on-board storage, and comes running Android 8.0 Oreo-based ASUS ZenUI 5.0. A dual-camera setup sits on the phone's glass back where a fingerprint scanner can also be seen, placed centrally. The dual-SIM phone has a hybrid card slot, a 3,300mAh battery with fast charging support, and a USB Type-C port.


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will American’s learn to stop worrying and love robots? That
question must be echoing inside consumer robotics company iRobot (IRBT).
The Burlington, Mass., company went public nearly two years ago and
its share price has spent much of last year below the $24 offering
price. Revenue from consumer products –60% of iRobot’s
revenue last year – fell 1% in the first half of 2007 from a year
Some of that decline was tied to waning appeal of iRobot’s
flagship consumer product, the Roomba vacuum. But iRobot had some new
products up its sleeve, and it announced them
last week: a robot to clean out rain gutters, and a mobile robot that
can send images of kids, pets or the infirm to remote PCs. The
response? iRobot’s stock was down as much as 3.2% Friday, hardly
a standing ovation.
Much of the press also seemed
indifferent, if not disappointed, reflecting a very cautious attitude
in the U.S. for robots in general: “Weird New iRobots
Unleashed” (PC World); “Robot Invasion Escalates” (Washington Post); “iRobot’s New Products Could End Up Lonely and Unloved” (TheStreet.com).
Where’s the robot love? In Asia, apparently - and in Japan, particularly. But in the U.S. there’s a robot dread running like an undercurrent beneath our robot fascination. Isaac Asimov called this robot-phobia “the Frankenstein complex”, and it is deeply ingrained in American and European culture. Take a look at this list of the 50 best movie robots: From Hal to T-2 to the Fembots, we Westerners applaud evil robots and their fourth-reel destruction.
Neena Buck, a robotics analyst quoted in the AP’s coverage, noted a sharp difference in robot comfort between East Asia and the West.
“In the U.S., we want our robots to be utilitarian,
and act as helpers to us,” Buck said. “In Japan and Korea,
they think of robots as friends and pets, and as additions to their
families.” But as prices come down, “I think Americans will
be willing to experiment with cute-ish robots that do something like
bring a family together.”
The culture gap is evident in this video
of Asimo, Honda’s humanoid robot, breaking into a trot. The
children and adults in the audience seem delighted, but my puerile
American mind felt more ambivalent: I felt both impressed by the
achievement and amused by a robot running like someone who is, shall we
say, desperate to defecate. I also found iRobot’s photos of perfectly behaved children observed by the ConnectR creepy in a way I can’t describe.
And yet, I like the idea of affordable household robots that iRobot
pioneered. iRobot built the Roomba like Apple (AAPL) built the early
Macintosh: Both created from scratch an original platform that others
can create applications for. Both made a machine simple to operate and
easy for middle-class consumers to afford. And both popularized a
fledgling industry that had massive potential over coming decades.
But household robots face an obstacle that personal computers didn’t: the Frankenstein complex.
Not only are we revolted by robots that are overly humanoid, we are
also cold to robots that are overly utilitarian. We don’t want
robots to be too much like us, but we are bored if they aren’t as
fancy as the ones we’ve seen in movies.
I still think household robots could be a huge market down the road,
and that iRobot could be a big player in it, but it will take decades.
In the meantime, a lot depends on how companies like iRobot manage our
contradictory feelings about robots.


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Strong global demand for Cape hake helps Sea Harvest shares
By Wilson Johwa - Feb 5th 2018, 14:44
Sea Harvest’s share price rose 4% on Monday, on the expectation of improved performance in SA, driven by strong market demand for Cape hake globally and the performance of investments the group has made in Saldanha Bay processing plants.
The group is in the process of finalising its first financial results for the year ended December 31 following its listing on the JSE in March. The financial results are scheduled to be released on about March 6.
In a recent trading statement, Sea Harvest said it expected to report a basic earnings per share (EPS) figure of between 110c and 124c, representing an increase of between 28% and 44% over the year before, as disclosed in the company’s pre-listing statement on March 6 2017.
Expected basic headline earnings per share (HEPS) is projected at between 99c and 113c, an increase of between 74% and 98%.
In December, the company, which apart from hake operations in SA has a controlling stake in Australian diversified seafood business Mareterram, said in a cautionary statement that it had started negotiations with unlisted Viking Fishing Holdings, for a possible acquisition.
Family-owned Viking had been in the news since it lost a sizeable portion of its inshore hake-fishing allocation, a development that the company unsuccessfully fought to overturn in court.
Viking is among the largest fishing enterprises in SA, involved with products such as hake, pilchards, prawn, snoek, and angelfish.
A consortium led by Sea Harvest was also due to bid for 50% of Viking’s sprawling aquaculture business, which included abalone, oysters, mussels and rainbow trout.
© BusinessLIVE MMXVIII
Spar lifts dividend after 'strong' interim performance
15/05/2019 - 08:53
Spar Group has hiked its half-year payout to shareholders by 5.2% on the back of “a strong performance” in the six months to end-March.
Pepkor says half-year earnings rose up to 54.1%
14/05/2019 - 08:48
Pepkor, previously Steinhoff Africa Retail, said that its half-year earnings rose by up to 54.1%.
BAT ‘is in good shape’ and expects higher earnings in 2019
25/04/2019 - 15:47
British American Tobacco (BAT) expects “another year of good earnings growth” in 2019, despite mooted regulations in the US and competitive threats, chair Richard Burrows says.
Clicks says private-label products boosted interim earnings
17/04/2019 - 09:59
Clicks Group says it grew headline earnings by 12.9% to R763.3m in the six months to February thanks in part to better sales of its private-label products and higher profits from its distribution business.
Superdry slumps as founder's return sparks board revolt
04/04/2019 - 13:34
Shares in Superdry fell more than 11% after founder Julian Dunkerton narrowly forced his way back into the company, which sparked the exit of most of its board members, including top executives.


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However, from January 1, 2000 the quota restrictions will have ceased and Mazda is aiming for 40,000 sales and a 2% share of the UK new car market. Now under Ford's control, Mazda believes it is half way through developing a range of vehicles which has seen it shed its somewhat quirky image and become more mainstream while retaining a niche element to its portfolio.
The launch of the 626 followed recently by the launch of the new 323 has helped Mazda significantly increase its fleet penetration. But it has retained its niche sector appeal with vehicles such as the new MX-5, Demio mini MPV and the Xedos.
'We will increase our business to a 2% market share from January 1, 2000 because that is the level at which the Mazda brand can still remain exclusive and residual values will remain strong,' said sales and operations director David Brennan. A corporate sales team of 10 headed by Trevor Houghton-Berry is to be boosted by a further four or five staff and the first move has seen the appointment of Dennis Bennett, who has joined from Mitsubishi as dealer development manager to help dealers better exploit corporate sales opportunities.
This year Mazda will sell about 16,000 vehicles into the corporate sector of which 7,000 will be 323s, 4,000 626s with the balance being MX-5, 121, Xedos and light commercials. In the next 14 months Mazda's recent launch of the 323 and Demio will be supplemented with the launch of MPVs into the both the lower medium and upper medium sectors, a facelifted 121, additions to the 323 range, special editions in the MX-5 range and additional versions of the B-series pick-up.


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Enews – March 2021
In this month’s Enews we consider the Chancellor’s 2021 Budget announcements, a new deadline for Self Assessment penalties and an online system for VAT deferrals.
With guidance on off-payroll working rules, the VAT reverse charge and extra time for businesses to repay COVID support there is a lot to update you on.
- Sunak set out Budget to protect businesses
- Business groups welcome Budget
- Late payment penalties for Self Assessment waived until 1 April
- Online service opens for VAT deferral scheme
- HMRC clarifies off-payroll rules
- Domestic VAT reverse charge comes into effect on 1 March
- Borrowers of Bounce Back loans given six more months for repayments
- Advisory fuel rates for company cars
Sunak set out Budget to protect businesses
Chancellor Rishi Sunak set out a Budget to protect businesses through the pandemic, fix the public finances and begin building the future economy.
The Chancellor once again pledged to do ‘whatever it takes’ during the COVID-19 pandemic and confirmed that the furlough scheme would be extended until September 2021 to support jobs through the crisis.
Mr Sunak also confirmed that the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has also been extended, with two further grants this year. Claimable by the self-employed, including the newly self-employed from 6 April 2019, provided they have filed their 2019/20 tax return for by midnight on 2 March 2021,
The stamp duty nil rate band on residential properties in England up to £500,000 will continue until the end of June. It will taper to £250,000 until the end of September, and then return to the usual level of £125,000 from 1 October 2021.
To support businesses as they re-open following lockdown, £5 billion will be made available in restart grants. Non-essential retail businesses re-opening first will be eligible for up to £6,000 but the leisure and hospitality sectors, which have been worse affected and will re-open later, will be eligible for up to £18,000.
However, the rate of corporation tax will increase to 25% in April 2023 for companies with profits over £250,000, whilst retaining a Small Profits Rate of 19% for companies with profits of £50,000 or less.
The Chancellor also introduced a super-deduction for companies investing in qualifying new plant and machinery. Under this measure a company will be allowed to claim 130% on most new plant and machinery investments that ordinarily qualify for 18% main rate writing down allowances.
He also confirmed the location of the eight Freeports in England. Freeports are special economic zones with favourable tariffs and lower taxes to make it easier and cheaper to do business.
Internet link: GOV.UK speeches
Business groups welcome Budget
Business groups welcomed the Chancellor’s Budget for protecting the economy now and kickstarting recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tony Danker, Director General of the CBI, said:
‘The Chancellor has gone above and beyond to protect UK businesses and people’s livelihoods through the crisis and get firms’ spending.
‘Thousands of firms will be relieved to receive support to finish the job and get through the coming months. The Budget also has a clear eye to the future; to ensure finances are sustainable, while building confidence and investment in a lasting recovery.’
Meanwhile, the British Chambers of Commerce’s (BCC) Director General, Dr Adam Marshall, commented:
‘The Chancellor has listened and acted on our calls for immediate support to help struggling businesses reach the finish line of this gruelling marathon and to begin their recovery.
‘Extensions to furlough, business rates relief and VAT reductions give firms a fighting chance not only to restart but also to rebuild.’
However, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that there was little in the Budget to aid job creation or help people return to work. Mike Cherry, National Chairman of the FSB, said: ‘Thousands of small businesses are on the brink of collapse and thousands more are suffering from low confidence as cash reserves dwindle.
‘The continuation of business rates and VAT discounts is critical, and it’s important that those in supply chains benefit from them, not just those that neatly fit the definitions of frontline retail, leisure and hospitality.’
Late payment penalties for Self Assessment waived until 1 April
HMRC has announced that Self Assessment taxpayers will not be charged a 5% late payment penalty if they pay their tax or set up a payment plan by 1 April.
The payment deadline for Self Assessment is 31 January and interest is charged from 1 February on any amounts outstanding.
Normally, a 5% late payment penalty is also charged on any unpaid tax that is still outstanding on 3 March. But this year, because of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, HMRC is giving taxpayers more time to pay or set up a payment plan.
Taxpayers can pay their tax bill or set up a monthly payment plan online and are required to do this by midnight on 1 April to prevent being charged a late payment penalty. The online Time to Pay facility allows taxpayers to spread the cost of their Self Assessment tax bill into monthly instalments until January 2022.
Jim Harra, HMRC’s Chief Executive, said:
‘Anyone worried about paying their tax can set up a payment plan to spread the cost into monthly instalments. Support is available at GOV.UK to help anyone struggling to meet their obligations.’
Internet link: HMRC press release
Online service opens for VAT deferral scheme
HMRC has announced that businesses that deferred VAT payments last year can now join the new online VAT Deferral New Payment Scheme to pay it in smaller monthly instalments.
To take advantage of the new payment scheme businesses will need to have deferred VAT payments between March and June 2020, under the VAT Payment Deferral Scheme. They will now be given the option to pay their deferred VAT in equal consecutive monthly instalments from March 2021.
Businesses will need to opt-in to the VAT Deferral New Payment Scheme. They can do this via the online service that opened on 23 February and closes on 21 June 2021.
Jesse Norman, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said:
‘The Government has provided a package of support worth over £280bn during the pandemic to help protect millions of jobs and businesses.
‘This now includes the VAT Deferral New Payment Scheme, which will help provide businesses with the breathing space they may need to manage their cashflows in the weeks and months ahead.’
HMRC clarifies off-payroll rules
HMRC has published a briefing on its approach to the changes to off-payroll working rules, commonly known as IR35, which will be introduced on 6 April 2021.
Reiterating its advice from last year, HMRC has confirmed that it will not issue penalties for inaccuracies in the first 12 months of the regime, unless there is evidence of deliberate non-compliance.
HMRC also confirmed that it will not use information it receives under the expanded regime to open new compliance enquiries into returns for tax years before 2021/22, unless there is reason to suspect fraud or criminal behaviour.
The new tax rules will see the extension to medium and large organisations in the private sector. These reforms will shift the responsibility for assessing employment status to medium and large organisations engaging individuals via a personal services company.
Internet link: GOV.UK
Domestic VAT reverse charge comes into effect on 1 March
The twice-delayed introduction of the domestic VAT reverse charge for construction services came into effect on 1 March 2021.
The change was originally scheduled to come into effect from 1 October 2019 but was deferred for 12 months after industry bodies highlighted concerns about the lack of preparation and the impact on businesses.
It was put back another five months due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the sector. The change applied from 1 March 2021 and overhauled the way VAT is payable on building and construction invoices as part of a move to reduce fraud in the sector.
From March 2021, the person receiving the supply of services, not the supplier of services, who accounts for the output VAT on those services. The recipient deducts VAT due on the supply as input VAT, subject to normal VAT rules. In most cases, no net tax on the transaction will be payable to HMRC. This new procedure will apply right the way up the CIS supply chain until you reach end users/intermediary suppliers, the supply defaults to normal VAT rules, so long as the end user/intermediary supplier correctly evidences their status.
The Domestic Reverse Charge (DRC) applies to most supplies of building and construction services from 1 March 2021, which are:
- standard or reduced rated supplies
- where both parties are registered for VAT in the UK
- and payments for the supplies are required to be reported via the Construction Industry Scheme.
The DRC does not apply to:
- zero rated supplies
- services supplied to end users or intermediary suppliers, so long as these have provided written confirmation of their status to the supplier
- employment businesses supplying either staff or workers.
Please contact us for advice on the DRC and how it impacts your business.
Internet link: GOV.UK
Borrowers of Bounce Back loans given six more months for repayments
Businesses that took out government-backed Bounce Back loans to get through the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will now have greater flexibility to repay their loans, the government has announced.
The Pay as You Grow repayment flexibilities now include the option to delay all repayments for a further six months. This means businesses can choose to make no payments on their loans until 18 months after they originally took them out.
Pay as You Grow will also enable borrowers to extend the length of their loans from six to ten years, which reduces monthly repayments by almost half.
They can also make interest-only payments for six months to tailor their repayment schedule to suit their individual circumstances.
The Pay as You Grow options will be available to more than 1.4 million businesses which took out a total of nearly £45 billion through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS).
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said:
‘Businesses are continuing to feel the impact of extended disruption from COVID-19, and we’re determined to give them the backing and confidence they need to get through the pandemic.
‘That’s why we’re giving Bounce Back loan borrowers breathing space to get back on their feet, through greater flexibility and time to repay their loans on their terms.’
Advisory fuel rates for company cars
New company car advisory fuel rates have been published and took effect from 1 March 2021.
The guidance states: ‘You can use the previous rates for up to one month from the date the new rates apply’. The rates only apply to employees using a company car.
The advisory fuel rates for journeys undertaken on or after 1 March 2021 are:
|1400cc or less
|1401cc – 2000cc
|1400cc or less
|1401cc – 2000cc
|1600cc or less
|1601cc – 2000cc
HMRC guidance states that the rates only apply when you either:
- reimburse employees for business travel in their company cars
- require employees to repay the cost of fuel used for private travel
You must not use these rates in any other circumstances.
The Advisory Electricity Rate for fully electric cars is 4 pence per mile. Electricity is not a fuel for car fuel benefit purposes.
If you would like to discuss your car policy, please contact us.
Internet link: GOV.UK AFR


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KABUL: The chairman of Iran’s union of oil products exporters has acknowledged that the Taliban has discontinued its purchase of gasoline from Iran due to concerns regarding product quality.
In an interview with Iranian news platform Fararu on Monday, Hamid Hosseini revealed that both Iraq and Afghanistan have shifted their gasoline imports to Uzbekistan and Russia, citing their provision of superior quality fuel. In January, the Taliban’s National Standards Authority declared that it had returned 26 fuel tankers to Iran due to quality issues.
According to a report by PetroView, an Iranian oil and gas consultancy and research platform, Iran’s primary exports to Afghanistan consist of gasoline and gasoil. Between May 2020 and May 2021, Iran successfully exported approximately 400,000 tons of fuel to Afghanistan. “The decision by the Taliban to return the gasoline is attributed to the higher quality of products originating from Uzbekistan and Russia. These countries, including Afghanistan, now exclusively accept products of exceptional quality,” explained Hosseini. Numerous petrochemical companies and refineries, engaged in the production of pyrolysis gasoline, have been exporting their goods to neighboring nations, including Afghanistan, for an extended period. However, the unprocessed form of this product is unsuitable as fuel and necessitates modification through a specialized procedure before it can be utilized in vehicles. In April, Afghan authorities revealed the existence of eight ongoing projects aimed at enhancing the standardization process within the country.


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And if it were a fiction, 2007 could be a denouement. We had Chrysler parting from Daimler and being sold to a company with a name straight from '50s pulp fiction, Cerberus Capital. Doc Savage, anyone? This was also the first year in which a non-domestic automaker became the de facto No. 2 player in the U.S., with Toyota passing Ford in monthly sales since May.
Chrysler and Ford, meanwhile, snagged top executives from Toyota this year. Chrysler LLC tapped Jim Press to be vice chairman and president, and Lexus Vice President Debra Wahl Meyer to be vice president/CMO. Jim Farley, who was Lexus general manager, left the company to become group vice president/marketing at Ford.
With crude oil approaching $100 a barrel and gasoline topping $3 for much of 2007--and the credit crisis putting negative pressure on the auto market--small was big, and mpg trumped hp. Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Chevy Aveo, and Nissan Versa were among vehicles that sold strongly this year despite a softer overall market.
And an even smaller vehicle is poised to enter the U.S. this coming year. Daimler AG's Smart Car launched with a $99-down reservation offer, well before the car itself arrived. This month, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said more than 30,000 downpayments were received for the car.
Per consumer auto research and shopping Web site Edmunds.com, compact-car sales were up 2.4% and compact SUV sales were 5.8% this year versus 2006. U.S. market share for compact cars grew about 1% this year, from 17.5% in 2006. And market share for hybrid vehicles--led by Toyota's Prius, which for the first time made the Top 10 list of most-researched vehicles on Edmunds--increased 61.5% compared to last year. Prius sales were up 71%.
Jesse Toprak, Edmunds.com's executive director of industry analysis, says compact vehicles were the only gainers this year. "It's most significant if you look at the landscape," he says, "because most categories posted declines, whereas compact cars--especially sub-compacts and hybrids--gained. So, although the size of the overall market declined this year by 3%, compact cars--including compact SUVs and crossovers--increased."
As in recent years, Nissan, Honda and Toyota grew market share at the expense of the Big Three. Per Edmunds.com, Honda's market share grew from 9.1% to 9.7%; Nissan's saw an uptick from 6.2% to 6.7%; and Toyota's rose from 15.3% to 16.3%. The firm says Toyota's monthly sales topped Chrysler's all year. Since May, Toyota has been the No. 2 automaker in the U.S., surpassing Ford.
If the buyer shift toward smaller vehicles favored Honda and Toyota this year, Toprak says it is because consumers think the two automakers are better represented than the domestics with fuel-efficient cars and trucks.
"Many consumers assume Honda and Toyota product lineup comprises more efficient vehicles in every category," he says. "But if you look at domestics, you see more and more gas-efficient vehicles. It's the perception among consumers that Japanese automakers have more gas-efficient vehicles that winds up favoring them in this market."
And 2007 may be the year when something happened in the U.S. automotive business that hasn't been seen since the 1940s: the startup. Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley firm which sells a $97,000 two-seat electric car and promises a four-seater at half the price, opened an R&D center in Detroit. The company has said its 2009 Tesla Roadster is sold out via wait-list payments of $5,000. Carlsbad, Calif.-based Aptera is bowing a sub-$30,000 electric-assist, three-wheeled car it claims gets 300 mpg.
General Motors also bowed a plug-in electric concept, Volt, which it plans to begin selling in 2010. "They need a dramatic vehicle like this to change the landscape, to get people interested in lineup," says Toprak. "Prius was a pioneering example of hybrid technology on a distinct-looking vehicle; it helped them capture the environmentally friendly crowd, but it also stood out. Chevy Volt is potentially in same situation."
Edmunds.com said the most-researched car on its site this year was the Honda Civic, followed by its Accord and then Toyota Camry. Six of the Top 10 most-researched cars were Toyotas or Hondas. Eight of the Top 10 most-researched trucks, SUVs and minivans were Toyotas or Hondas.
Domestic manufacturers' market share dropped from 55.2% in 2006 to 52.3% this year.


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“Chunky” Soup Makes Brand History as Eight NFL Players Will Appear
in the 'Mama's Boys' Advertising Campaign
CAMDEN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 24, 2007–Campbell Soup
Company (NYSE:CPB) today announced the largest contingent of NFL stars
to ever participate in the “Campbell’s Chunky” soup “Mama’s Boys”
advertising campaign. Eight of the NFL’s most elite athletes,
including LaDainian Tomlinson (San Diego Chargers), Jonathan Vilma
(New York Jets), Larry Johnson (Kansas City Chiefs), Maurice
Jones-Drew (Jacksonville Jaguars), DeMarcus Ware (Dallas Cowboys),
Devin Hester (Chicago Bears), Todd Heap (Baltimore Ravens) and Matt
Hasselbeck (Seattle Seahawks), returning for his second year as a
“Campbell’s Chunky” spokesman, will be featured, along with their
moms, in this season’s advertising campaign.
The campaign marks the “Campbell’s Chunky” soup brand’s tenth
consecutive season sponsoring the NFL and will once again play on the
popular “Mama’s Boys” theme. The campaign will feature a combination
of the NFL players’ real-life moms serving “Chunky” soup to their sons
to help satisfy their NFL sized hunger. In addition to the eight NFL
players featured in the campaign, “Campbell’s Chunky” soup will also
continue relationships with the players’ teams throughout the course
of the 2007-2008 NFL season.
All eight athletes will be featured in television and print
advertising set to debut during the NFL’s opening weekend, September
6th. The eight NFL stars follow in the footsteps of past “Campbell’s
Chunky” soup spokesmen and NFL greats, including Donovan McNabb,
Reggie White, John Elway, Terrell Davis, Jerome Bettis, and Brian
Urlacher, among others.
“With our biggest roster of NFL players and more ways to work with
the players’ teams than ever before, we anticipate an exciting year
with the NFL,” said Doug Johns, Senior Brand Manager, ‘Campbell’s
Chunky’ soup. “Our eight NFL players are incredibly talented,
good-hearted guys, who truly exemplify the ‘Chunky’ brand and our
consumer … and we can’t forget about how they look out for mom,
The campaign will also feature the trademark “Campbell’s Chunky”
soup message, “It fills you up right(R).” which has contributed to
double-digit sales growth for the brand since the campaign began in
1997. Creative for the campaign is being handled by Young & Rubicam,
All NFL players participating in the “Campbell’s Chunky” soup
campaign were secured by PLAYERS INC, the licensing and marketing
subsidiary of the NFL Players Association.
For more information on the “Campbell’s Chunky” soup ‘Mama’s Boys’
advertising campaign, please visit www.chunky.com.
About Campbell Soup Company
Campbell Soup Company is a global manufacturer and marketer of
high quality simple meals, soups, baked snacks, vegetable-based
beverages, and premium chocolate products. Founded in 1869, the
company has a portfolio of market-leading brands, including
“Campbell’s,” “Pepperidge Farm,” “Arnott’s,” “V8,” and “Godiva.” For
more information on the company, visit Campbell’s website at
CONTACT: Campbell Soup Company
John Faulkner, 856-342-3738
Lisa Farynyk / Erin Bobal, 212-938-0166
SOURCE: Campbell Soup Company
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The Federal Trade Commission should insist that Google remove all children's content from YouTube in order to settle allegations that the company violated privacy laws, advocates say in a new letter to the agency.
The advocates specifically urge the FTC to reject any deal allowing companies to continue to post children's content to YouTube if they refrain from monetizing material with behaviorally targeted ads.
“It is crucial that any proposed consent decree with YouTube or Google require the structural separation of the child-directed channels and videos, substantial civil penalties, and other relief,” lawyers for watchdogs Center for Digital Democracy and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood wrote in a letter sent to the agency on Wednesday.
Those groups alleged in an FTC complaint filed in April of 2018 that Google was violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by knowingly collecting personal data from children younger than 13 without parental consent. The FTC has defined personal data to include geolocation information, unique device identifiers, mobile telephone numbers and other identifiers used to compile profiles and serve ads based on people's presumed interests.
The FTC is reportedly investigating Google over the allegations.
The new letter comes in response to a phone conference between FTC Chairman Joseph Simons, Commissioner Noah Phillips, and children's advocates.
During the call, an FTC Commissioner asked whether YouTube channels have the option to disable interest-based advertising, according to Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
“We became very concerned that that was a clue to part or all of the remedy the FTC is considering,” Golin says.
The watchdogs are now telling the FTC that disabling interest-based advertising won't resolve privacy concerns because companies may still be able to collect children's data, even if the information isn't used to target ads.
“It is unclear whether a child-directed channel on YouTube can prevent the collection of personal information from their viewers and subscribers,” the groups write. “It appears that by using advanced settings, a channel can opt to disable interest-based advertising...But it is not clear whether turning off interest-based advertising actually stops the data collection and tracking of the child via Google’s GMP [Google Marketing Platform] system.”
They also note that it's only possible to disable interest-based ads on channels, not individual videos. “Content creators who produce videos for a wide range of audiences would have to opt out and forgo the revenue of interest-based ads for all of their videos, even those produced for an adult audience, in order to avoid serving these ads to children,” the groups write.


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Best Android app deals of the day: OK Golf, Kingdom Two Crowns, Dandara, more
Thursday’s best Android game and app deals are now up for the taking. You’ll find some fresh new deals in our Chromebook, Google, and Android hubs alongside today’s all-time low on Fossil’s Gen 5/E Wear OS Smartwatches, but for now we are turning our attention to Google Play’s software discounts. Highlights include titles like OK Golf, Kingdom New Lands, Kingdom Two Crowns, Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition, and more. Hit the jump for a closer look at all of today’s best game and app deals.